Thinking of Yourself as a Subscription Service
By Jackson Palmer
11 August 2010 | Category: Uncategorized
One thing that has become more and more apparent to me recently is that the build and launch paradigm of web design is fundamentally broken. In today's world, where we're building much more than simple, static websites, it no longer makes sense to apply a set-and-forget mentality to the professional web services being provided.
Web designers today need to take a page out of the agile development handbook: starting small, building, building some more, and learning along the way.
So begins a cycle of launching, rinsing and repeating - letting you focus on how you can help your client achieve their long-term business goals rather than fulfilling their short-term desires and absorbing every bump you encounter along the way in the form of recurring revenue.
Let's take a look at how you can start thinking of yourself as a subscription service and ditch the "once-off" project mindset.
1: Start Small and Plan for Iterations
(Photo credit: DeaPeaJay)
Right from the very beginning of your relationship with the client, it’s crucial that you clearly set their expectations about the service you’ll be providing.
Many clients will come to you expecting the most feature-rich, elaborate website under the sun – and that’s when you have to step in and re-align their way of thinking. Limiting yourself to this “once-off” approach encourages design guesswork, usually pushing projects over time and over budget.
They need to understand and be comfortable with the idea of starting small, then building up the site over time. While at first this may seem counter-intuitive to them, you are the expert: it’s your job to convince them that aiming for the biggest and the best the first time round is unrealistic. Plan for future iterations, fine-tuning and growing their online presence on the back of reporting, analytics and customer feedback.
Having your client agree to this strategy not only builds trust, but also sows the seeds for a long-term relationship that will generate a nice stream of recurring revenue for you as their web designer.
2: Know what’s Next
(Photo credit: Gadl)
While having the client sign off on this approach initially is all well and good, you need to make sure that you’ve planned ahead and know what comes next.
What features or type of functionality will be added as the business grows? Will they want to start selling online? Will they need a blog, social media integration or a community forum? Many of the things the client initially sought in the first iteration of their site can be moved out to this second phase, and implemented once certain checkpoints have been met.
It’s up to you to apply your expertise when planning, and make sure you’ve always got a roadmap beyond where you are right now – having this roadmap is what sets you apart and positions you as the one who will implement it for them.
3: Monitor and Measure
The best way to structure your roadmap is around business milestones that the client will be sure to hit in the future. For instance, when their site reaches a certain number of sales inquiries per week via the contact form, it may be time to consider selling online or more actively engaging with customers through a live-chat service.
Knowing when you’ve hit these milestones comes down to continual monitoring of the online business’s performance. Today, web designers are blessed with an endless toolkit of reporting and analytics options, allowing you to back up your suggestions for improvement with concrete statistics.
Keep a watchful eye on key metrics such as unique visits, average page views per visit and customer conversion if applicable. A “conversion” needn’t always be an online purchase – it may involve signing up for a member’s only zone or subscribing to your client’s monthly newsletter (which you’ll be designing, of course!).
In addition to monitoring the business’s progress towards milestones, it’s also important that you watch out for any unexpected dips in the site’s performance. The beauty of web design as a subscription service is that if you’ve tried something out and it didn’t work, you can always tweak, measure and repeat – determining what works and what doesn’t over time while backing your decisions up with solid reporting data.
4: Follow up and Repeat
(Photo Credit: Tracy O)
As a web designer, you can’t be afraid to follow up with your client. The best web designer understands that sometimes they need to be a salesperson as well.
As you move through the process of building out the site, you need to be comfortable with measuring the results and determining whether checkpoints have been reached. Once they have been, it’s important that you contact the client and suggest that you now move into Phase 2.
If they’ve been successful thus far, chances are they’ll agree and you’ll be able to move forward as planned.
In three months time when the business is ready to move into Phase 3, you’ll have already built a trusting relationship: the client is given what they need online, while you gain a steady stream of recurring revenue.
Have you made the change to thinking of yourself as a subscription service, or do you find yourself stuck in the world of once-off client projects? Let us know about your experiences in the comments.
Follow @thinkvitamin on Twitter Please check out Treehouse
